Defense paves the way for surging Leominster

Leominster's Noah Gray passes the ball under the hoop during Thursday's game against Shewsbury at Leominster High School. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / BRETT CRAWFORD

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LEOMINSTER -- Surprise. The Leominster High boys' basketball team is 6-2 overall and turning some heads in the process.

The defensive-minded Blue Devils got down and dirty on defense, anchored by the gritty play of senior point guard Jake Allain, en route to an easy 57-36 Midland League A triumph over Shrewsbury Thursday evening at Leominster High School.

"We're not surprising ourselves, though," said Allain, who led all scorers with 12 points, but his lock-down defense was even more impressive. "We're going to keep surprising people apparently because we're working hard and our defense is leading us a long way."

And Leominster's (6-2, 2-0) tenacious man-to-man defense has been its calling card in this four-game winning streak.

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The Blue Devils' total team defense wreaked havoc on the Colonials (3-6, 0-2), limiting the visitors to 13 first-half points -- which was the same total allowed against archrival Fitchburg in the first 16 minutes on Tuesday night.

"To hold that team to 13 points in the first half on a night where we didn't shoot particularly well, we're very pleased with our defensive effort," Leominster coach Steve Dubzinski said.

Leominster certainly has that tough, football mentality while on the hardwood. It's probably to be expected anyway, since four of the five starters play on the gridiron and Dubzinski grew up in a football-first household.

Not to say some night we're not going to play well -- those things happen -- but right now we're buying into the fact that we think defense can keep us in the game even on a night that we don't shoot well. They've played well man-to-man and they work hard. It's a special tribute of this particular class.

"They're tough kids, they're good kids and they're a good group to coach."

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